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Ask HN: Why is multi-seat not available out of the box for Linux?

2 points by taatparya ↗ HN
This seems a no-brainer but can't anything ready made. Will be a boon for developing countries. Something already exists for Windows which was quite good in trial: https://ibiksoft.com/

7 comments

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h2odragon
Multi-seat? You mean a string of terminals off one box? I had that on a Linux 2.0 machine in 1996... vt220's are gonna be a bit harder to find now, prolly hafta use more modern ones.
taatparya
Not just terminal but the full desktop experience.
KZerda
Honestly, I think one of the biggest reasons is that it just became easier and cheaper in the linux world to throw a stack of raspberry pis at the problem. Windows, multi-seat became advantageous because the cheapest Windows box was at least a couple hundred dollars. Linux, however, why bother messing with a stack of $100 multi-seat adapters when a pi, memory stick, and power supply is $50? Had the pi and similar super cheap boxes not come out, I imagine you'd have seen more work polishing up the multi-seat experience to be extremely seamless, but a lot of that work just wasn't needed.
speedgoose
Because the demand is low. If developing countries wants multi seat on Linux, they can develop it.
daviddever23box
Android tablets are cheaper and consume less power than some free-standing monitors; throw in a keyboard and mouse and the multi-seat cost ceases to make sense.

For the Linux developer use case, where a keyboard (and less so a mouse) is required, multi-seat only makes sense if you are cramming a large number of developers into a small space (which is less desirable during a global pandemic).